USS Salem to leave Quincy for East Boston

Thursday

May 8, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Michael Condon, executive director of the nonprofit that owns the USS Salem in the Quincy Shipyard, revealed Wednesday that he has agreed to move the former Navy cruiser to the Boston Harbor Shipyard & Marina.

Patrick Ronan

The USS Salem is leaving Quincy and is headed to East Boston.

Michael Condon, executive director of the nonprofit that owns the former Navy cruiser, revealed Wednesday that he has agreed to move the ship to the Boston Harbor Shipyard & Marina as the MBTA prepares to sell the Quincy wharf which currently holds the Salem to local developer Jay Cashman.

The USS Salem was built at the Quincy shipyard in the 1940s. The Navy commissioned it in 1949 and decommissioned it in 1959. In 1994, the Salem returned to Quincy and a year later opened as the U.S. Naval Shipbuilding Museum, serving as a symbol of the city's shipbuilding history during World War II.

“We love Quincy and we felt that Quincy was the reason why the ship existed as a museum. But in the end, we felt the East Boston location is a place where the museum can blossom,” Condon said Wednesday.

Condon estimated the USS Salem will likely be moved out of the Quincy shipyard in the next six to 12 months, and he said the MBTA and Cashman will help fund its relocation to East Boston.

The Boston shipyard is also home to the Nantucket Lightship, a popular historic site for tourists, and HarborArts, a collection of monumental sculptures and public art.

“We want to make a little destination place, and we hope the USS Salem rounds it out,” said Dan Noonan, co-owner of Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina.

Noonan said Condon has expressed interest in debuting the USS Salem in Boston in time to hold its popular Haunted Ship program before Halloween. Since the 1990s, the museum has also generated revenue by offering tours, educational programs and overnight stays for the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts.

The MBTA shut down access to the Salem last September after discovering that the wharf next to the ship was unstable. The museum has been closed to the public ever since.

The T decided to sell its wharf, including the pier that the Salem leases from the T, last fall after a water-main break further damaged a sea wall and cracked the pavement near the boarding area of the Fore River ferry terminal. The ferry service will not reopen, and the T has since expanded service out of the Hingham shipyard to accommodate Quincy passengers.

Last week, Fore River Recycling, a subsidiary owned by shipyard developer Jay Cashman, placed a $1.1 million bid to buy the T’s property, comprised of nearly 12 acres of land and water rights. The T property abuts 26 acres that Cashman already owns at the shipyard.

Cashman said he has donated more than $100,000 to the USS Salem in past years, and he’s a fan of the programs it offers. However, he said the East Boston location will provide a better place for the museum to thrive.

“Right now, they are king of tucked under the (Fore River) bridge and they are not getting the visibility they can get in a location like Boston,” Cashman said Wednesday.

After his purchase of the T property is finalized, Cashman said he’ll repair the damaged wharf and expand the existing site of Cashman Dredging. In his current space, Cashman said his firm can only build about 75 percent of the dredgers on-site and the rest must be built in other shipyards.

Cashman said gaining control of the T space will also allow his company to build a marine railway to launch ships into the harbor.

“This gives us a little more elbow room. This will allow us to build from soup to nuts, do the outfitting and launch it ourselves,” Cashman said.